I Quit Weight Watchers!

I OP'd a thread about 15 months ago called "I Joined Weight Watchers" (that is still going strong). I started at 275 pounds, with the goal weight of 210. Since that time, I've lost 45 pounds (Wooooo!!) and am at 230. However, I've been stuck at 230 for about 4 months. The WW program has become dull and both my wife and I have lost interest in the program. Therefore, we have both joined MyFitnessPal (which is free) to try to get a fresh start on our remaining weight. If you compare the two programs, they are pretty much identical with the difference that MyFitnessPal tracks calories, as opposed to WW's points system. (Plus, it's free . . .) Mrs. Tractorlegs and I believe that a fresh start on a new program will help us get started again. I'm only about 10 to 15 weeks away from goal weight. So, Onward and Downward! I quit Weight Watchers! Ride Free!!

"Participants in Weight Watchers lost 5.3% of their initial weight at 1 year and maintained a loss of 3.2% at 2 years." - Study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Another study, published in the Lancet (and funded by Weight Watchers) found a success rate of 5.8 per cent. I don't think such success figures warrant joining WW.

My wife joined WW and goes from time to time. It's never worked all that well for her.

As for me, my opinion is that it's a great service for support but other than that, fairly useless. If you it was that important to people to watch their wait, they could start by watching what they put in their mouths. I'll be the first to admit I have no right to complain about my weight, as I'm 100% accountable for my decisions to go stop at Burger King on the way home from a hard ride. I bring it upon myself. It's not like I'm a 10 year old and I'm forced to eat Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, etc. because it's all there is to eat in the house.

Both, Rachel and I are HORRIBLE about our snack choices while sitting on the sofa in the evening. While she eats her share of fruits/veggies throughout the day but I, on the other hand, do not. I really don't eat much at all throughout the day. Come night time, it's dinner, then BBQ chips, licorice, and Animal Crackers. I really want to change my eating habits but it's just that, a habit, and a bad one, too. I really need to change my mindset and focus on eating healthy.

Yes, there certainly are health issues that come into play with excessive weight loss/gain but that's a different entity altogether.

Right now WW online version is working for me, but I totally get the need to switch it up for something fresh when you stagnate and plan on doing the same if it happens to me where I get stuck at the same spot for a long time.

I do like the points instead of calories because of all the fresh fruits/veggies that have calories but don't have points so you feel like you can "game the system" and still get more food if you're hungry and used up all your allowance for a day. On the other hand, figuring out points for some things can be a giant pain in the ass.

Punctuation is important. It's the difference between "I helped my uncle, Jack, off a horse" and "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse"

Right now WW online version is working for me, but I totally get the need to switch it up for something fresh when you stagnate and plan on doing the same if it happens to me where I get stuck at the same spot for a long time.

I do like the points instead of calories because of all the fresh fruits/veggies that have calories but don't have points so you feel like you can "game the system" and still get more food if you're hungry and used up all your allowance for a day. On the other hand, figuring out points for some things can be a giant pain in the ass.

I've found Strava to be the greatest source of weight loss for me. I've kinda become addicted to "racking up the miles."

"Participants in Weight Watchers lost 5.3% of their initial weight at 1 year and maintained a loss of 3.2% at 2 years." - Study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Another study, published in the Lancet (and funded by Weight Watchers) found a success rate of 5.8 per cent. I don't think such success figures warrant joining WW.

Weight Watchers was very effective for us. If the program is followed to the letter, it works and, frankly, I've never seen it fail. But the reason we're moving over to MFP is because, as himespau states, we're stagnating and need to refresh the tactic. WW changed me from medically obese to a healthy weight, so I'm thankful for it.

I've tried myfitnesspal twice. The first time, I GAINED weight while hitting my calorie targets and the second time I dropped 8lbs quickly and then stalled out. I think the most important thing about MFP is to accurately gauge your base activity rate. They use this to generate a target calorie count for you. If you guess too high or too low, you'll be hitting your targets but not getting what you need.

That's just my experience.

On the other hand, my brother lost 40lbs with MFP, and a lady coworker has taken off 50 and counting.

FitnessPal, and one I was using called FatSecret are ok, and free. I was doing WW online, but at $18/mo their online was really no better than the others, except that their forums were better, and one of them, "Guys on a Diet", I kind of miss. BF C&A more than makes up for that.

I recently stopped using FatSecret and started on TrainingPeaks. It's fitness tracking is far superior to MyFitnessPal, WW, FatSecret, or any similar sites I have found. The way those track calories burned is largely guesswork, TP gets it straight from your Garmin, or similar device. Strava does this too, but doesn't have the diet tracking. I continue to use Strava because of the several live contacts I have made in that community.

As much as you paid for that Beemer [Mercedies, Audi, Escalade], I'm surprised it didn't come equipped with turn signals.

Weight Watchers was very effective for us. If the program is followed to the letter, it works and, frankly, I've never seen it fail. But the reason we're moving over to MFP is because, as himespau states, we're stagnating and need to refresh the tactic. WW changed me from medically obese to a healthy weight, so I'm thankful for it.

The biggest knock on WW I know is the case of Tony, who posts as "The Anti-Jared" on Facebook. He lost 200 some pounds and applied to be a leader for WW. They rejected him because his BMI didn't match their standard. Hmm, it seems to me someone who loses 200 pounds and keeps it off is more than qualified to help others.

The biggest knock on WW I know is the case of Tony, who posts as "The Anti-Jared" on Facebook. He lost 200 some pounds and applied to be a leader for WW. They rejected him because his BMI didn't match their standard. Hmm, it seems to me someone who loses 200 pounds and keeps it off is more than qualified to help others.

My biggest knock on WW is the the pressure they put on you do consume 5 servings (if memory serves) of dairy each day. You can eat a healthy diet, getting all the calcium you need (from similar sources that the cows get it from) without ever touching a drop of dairy. Skim milk in coffee a couple of times a week, and a couple of yogurts a week is fine by me, and all the dairy I want to consume.

As much as you paid for that Beemer [Mercedies, Audi, Escalade], I'm surprised it didn't come equipped with turn signals.

My biggest knock on WW is the the pressure they put on you do consume 5 servings (if memory serves) of dairy each day. You can eat a healthy diet, getting all the calcium you need (from similar sources that the cows get it from) without ever touching a drop of dairy. Skim milk in coffee a couple of times a week, and a couple of yogurts a week is fine by me, and all the dairy I want to consume.

Now that is interesting. Considering how many adults have problems with dairy products I'd think they'd reconsider that recommendation.

My biggest knock on WW is the the pressure they put on you do consume 5 servings (if memory serves) of dairy each day. You can eat a healthy diet, getting all the calcium you need (from similar sources that the cows get it from) without ever touching a drop of dairy. Skim milk in coffee a couple of times a week, and a couple of yogurts a week is fine by me, and all the dairy I want to consume.

The biggest knock on WW I know is the case of Tony, who posts as "The Anti-Jared" on Facebook. He lost 200 some pounds and applied to be a leader for WW. They rejected him because his BMI didn't match their standard. Hmm, it seems to me someone who loses 200 pounds and keeps it off is more than qualified to help others.

That's no correlation there Neil. The program works.... Why they didn't take tony as a leader is their loss. Tony and I have talked about it at length.

I have been doing My Fitness Pal since late July. I am down 43 lbs, though my weight loss has slowed down since January. IMO, it works very well, though you have to log your food accurately.

During this first day on MFP, we're discovering that it is easier to accurately track than it was on WW. We don't have to find the points values of foods. Right now I had a couple of sandwiches and it was easy to simply read the labels and add up the calories, instead of typing everything into the tracker or searching for points values on the database. This is actually quite relaxing.

The important principal here is understanding what you are eating and getting feedback. MFP is working for me. I've food logged before and MFP's ease of use and massive database has made the difference. I've logged every day this year. I'm only down 26 pounds but the nice bicycle weather has just arrived. I expect to hit my goal, going from 326 to 210 early in 2014.

Our reason is quite satisfied, in 999 cases out of every 1000 of us, if we can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticized by someone else. Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
- William James, from The Will to Believe, a guest lecture at Yale University in 1897

The important principal here is understanding what you are eating and getting feedback. MFP is working for me. I've food logged before and MFP's ease of use and massive database has made the difference. I've logged every day this year. I'm only down 26 pounds but the nice bicycle weather has just arrived. I expect to hit my goal, going from 326 to 210 early in 2014.

Congratulations on your great start! You're right about the MFP database of foods/restaurants, it is substantially larger than WW.

Neil's point about myfitnesspal.com is important because the data is entered by members. There is a verification system, but it is in its early stages. I wonder about the calories it shows being burned while biking. However, I always have a huge calorie gap on biking days and, even if a little high, since I'm pushing 300 pounds any reasonable standard would be too low for me. In researching the 650/hour calories burned while drumming I found out that it was determined from lab studies of Blondie's drummer. I play at a much lower volume, so I set up a "moderate drumming" exercise at 325 calories/hr.

Our reason is quite satisfied, in 999 cases out of every 1000 of us, if we can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticized by someone else. Our faith is faith in someone else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.
- William James, from The Will to Believe, a guest lecture at Yale University in 1897

Use it with caution. There's a lot of inaccurate and conflicting information.

I have found this to be the case with all internet nutrition databases. Most of these rely on data input by users, and there are mistakes. Sometimes in the case of packaged food there are inaccuracies as formulations and serving sizes may change.

As much as you paid for that Beemer [Mercedies, Audi, Escalade], I'm surprised it didn't come equipped with turn signals.